InFamous Second Son. I did like it but once done with good karma I didn't feel compelled to play through for bad karma. It would be just for trophies and you can platinum Second Son in 2 playthroughs with little difficulty. If I was a new age gaming hipster trophy douche then I would play through it again to platinum but I'm not, so I won't. The game is dead to me now.

This was obviously thrown together quickly to hype the next gen PS4 and get teh fanboys salivating for something they were familiar with. However if you're looking for next gen awesomeness from Second Son, it isn't really there. While graphically it looks great(most of the time, next gen hasn't fixed teeth) and the gameplay and controls are pretty smooth(although climbing mechanics and animations are at least half retarded) the game is not challenging in the least and offers nothing really new outside of power types and the lamest of lame side missions.

I guess if you love falling asleep during side missions like spray painting walls, tracking down audio logs and hidden cameras with no effort and hunting down secret agents with no effort then you love this game and wanna give it a 9 or 10. Literally you go to a spot in the game which is highlighted for you, turn your controller sideways and hold R2 and mimic the motion of painting something. For hunting down audio logs you go to a spot in the game that is highlighted for you and track down an audio log with your cell phone that is like 40 meters away from you and you just walk to it(or climb a little bit to it) following the signal. It's super easy and super dumb. To be honest, the main missions aren't much better in terms of difficulty. Sometimes the toughest part of this game is having to sit through the boring cutscenes you absolutely cannot skip. The game seems shorter than it should be. The story seems thinner than it should be. This should have been great but it was only good. There's nothing wrong with good. Good is good but obviously great woulda been better. I expect the next game in the series to be great. There is a ton of room for improvement in continuing on but in 3 games spread over 2 gens there has been little to no growth in the series. In terms of gameplay it seems to have actually regressed. At least in terms of difficulty. Infamous needs to evolve or die. Although I am quite sure super fans of the series would gladly pre-order the next 3 Infamous games if they didn't change a thing but a new paper thin story line. To each their own I suppose.

The rating:

Infamous Second Son is like getting a lapdance from your second cousin. You totally know there's tons of shit wrong with it yet you got the hugest boner anyway. "But she's only my second cousin!", you say to yourself but it's still totally fucked up you got a boner from it.

Definitely an 8 and that's pushing it but you kind of have to give it an 8 because from a technical standpoint there's not a ton wrong with the game and the the other stuff is all subjective. Some people will love spray painting a wall 30 times and think it's the best thing ever(hint:they're idiots) and others will be bored to tears from it. Plus your second cousin is kinda cute. But dude, seriously, gross.

BioWare said that the extended scenes will provide additional context and deeper insight to the conclusion of Commander Shepard’s journey. But the new DLC will not create a new ending or choice of endings for the game, as “BioWare strongly believes in the team’s artistic vision for the end of this arc of the Mass Effect franchise.”

An Ethnographically Informed Design is a design which results from an ethnography. The design goal of this project is the creation of an ethnographically informed game design focused on social collaboration by conducting a rapid ethnography of gamers - one 1 to 2 hours interview with each participant, and optional game(s) sessions. The research question studied is how a collaborative computer game can be developed by leveraging anthropological methods, cultural knowledge and theories. If you would like to participate or have any questions, please contact Benjamin J. S. Dubois, MA Student at San Jose State University (benjamin.dubois@students.sjsu.edu). You need to be 18 years old or over to participate.

ethnography: the study and systematic recording of human cultures; also : a descriptive work produced from such research. (from merriam-webster.com)

Thank you,

Ben

LeSiDD is a fellow My IGNer and also a member of the My IGN Facebook group. We've been friends for a while and he just recently moved from San Francisco to Japan with his wife. I did my interview with him last night on Skype and I told him I would pass this around My IGN to see if any other gamers would like to help out with his research project. He's a pretty cool guy who's not afraid of anything and he also has a real French accent as he was born in France unlike Patrix who has just a pseudo French accent from Quebec which is really just a mix of Canadian and asshole haha j/k Pat!

So anyway just leave a comment if you have any interest in helping out my friend Ben and then he'll take over from there.

There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them.

- Sylvia Plath

Born: 27 October 1932

Birthplace: Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts

Died: 11 February 1963 (suicide)

Best Known As: Poet and author of The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath's haunting and personal poems and her tragic life story have placed her in the pantheon of contemporary American poets. Plath grew up outside Boston, graduated from Smith College and attended Cambridge University in England on a Fulbright Scholarship. In 1956 she married English poet Ted Hughes and, after a brief period teaching at Smith, settled in Devon, England. In 1960 she published her first collection of poems as The Colossus to favorable reviews, but her marriage to Hughes dissolved and Plath moved to London with her two children. Between 1961 and 1963 she wrote dozens of poems, but continued to struggle with a mental illness that had already caused her to attempt suicide twice. In 1962 her play Three Women was performed on BBC, and her semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, was published under a pseudonym. In February of 1963 Plath gassed herself to death with her kitchen oven. Most of her published works appeared posthumously, including Ariel (1965), Winter Trees (1972) and Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams (1979, a collection of short fiction). In 1981 The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath was published, edited by Hughes; it won a Pulitzer Prize in 1982.

Word of the Day

flagrant \FLAY-grunt\ adjective

:conspicuously offensive; especially : so obviously inconsistent with what is right or proper as to appear to be a flouting of law or morality

The United Nations is investigating what seem to be flagrant violations of human rights by the junta.

"Wade missed the South Carolina game because of … a flagrantpersonal foul at Vanderbilt." — From an article by Bob Holt and Tom Murphy in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, November 20, 2011

In Latin, "flagrare" means "to burn," and "flagrans" means "burning" or "fiery hot" (both literally and figuratively). When it was first used in the 16th century, "flagrant" had the same meaning as "flagrans," but by the 18th century it had acquired its current meaning of "conspicuously bad." Some usage commentators warn against using "flagrant" and "blatant" interchangeably. While both words denote conspicuousness, they are not exact synonyms. "Blatant" is usually used of some person, action, or thing that attracts disapproving attention (e.g., "a blatant grammatical error"). "Flagrant" is used similarly, but usually carries a heavier weight of violated morality (e.g., "flagrant abuse of public office").

Artist of the Day

Machine Head is an American heavy metal band from Oakland, California. Formed on October 12, 1991, the group was founded by Robb Flynn and Adam Duce. There have been 4 member changes since their inception. The current lineup of the band comprises Flynn (vocals, guitar), Duce (bass), ex-Vio-Lence guitarist Phil Demmel (guitar), and Dave McClain (drums). Machine Head is one of the pioneering bands in the New Wave of American Heavy Metal.

Machine Head was formed by member Robb Flynn, previously part of the bands Forbidden and Vio-lence. Flynn felt musically unfulfilled with Vio-lence and requested to start a side project. When his request was denied, he left the band and formed Machine Head in 1992 with Adam Duce, Logan Mader and Tony Constanza. Though the band's first album, Burn My Eyes, was a big success in Europe where it garnered attention on MTV's Headbangers Ball, in America (with HBB taken off the air during the grunge movement) Machine Head would not have success until later albums.

The band nearly disbanded in 2002 after negotiating off its label, Roadrunner Records, when controversy surrounding Machine Head's fourth album Supercharger (released 3 weeks after September 11, 2001) resulted in their songs and their then-current video for the song "Crashing Around You" (which featured burning buildings) being pulled from all media outlets. The band re-signed with Roadrunner soon after and has released three albums since, 2003's Through the Ashes of Empires, 2007's The Blackening (which earned Machine Head its first Grammy Award nomination) and the newest album Unto the Locust was released on September 27, 2011. Machine Head have sold more than 2.4 Million albums worldwide since their album debut in 1994.

This video game was based on a Viking Child called Brian who must enter the Halls of Valhalla and do battle against an evil god Loki and his minions.

The game closely resembled Wonder Boy in Monster Land, as certain elements like collecting hidden gold, upgrading the character's weapons and visiting shops were practically identical, despite the difference in release times. These facts earned Viking Child a reputation for being a clone of Wonder Boy in Monster Land, or, according to Amiga Reviews, an inferior copy.

Programming of the Lead version (Atari ST version) was done by Mark Fisher (a.k.a. Fish, Mr Fish) Original graphics were created by Anthony Rosbottom (a.k.a. Bliz, Blizzard) Music was written by Barry Leitch & Ian Howe

Birthdays in the Community

None today.

If it's your birthday and you aren't listed just tell me on my wall and I will add you to the compendium. Once a month one random lucky person will win a prize.